Category: vivisection

‘A ‘mouse city’ the size of the population of York was accidentally bred by scientists following a laboratory blunder, a new Home Office report has shown. Researchers at an unnamed laboratory bred nearly 180,000 more mice for use in experiments than their license permitted, and carried out unauthorised experiments on them, yet received only a letter of reprimand.’

‘R (on the application of the European Federation for Cosmetic Ingredients) v Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Attorney General, British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection and the European Coalition to End Animal Experiments (intervening) [2014] EWHC 4222 (Admin) 12 December 2014. Conscientious shoppers who check the labelling of shampoos and other cosmetic products for the “not tested on animals” legend may not be aware that there is in place an EU Regulation (“the Cosmetics Regulation”), enforceable by criminal sanctions, prohibiting the placing on the market of any product that has been tested on laboratory animals. Any comfort drawn from this knowledge however may be displaced by the uncertainty concerning the status of cosmetics whose ingredients have been tested on animals in non-EU or “third” countries. (Incidentally the Cruelty Cutter app is designed to enable consumers to test, at the swipe of a smart phone, whether the product they are contemplating purchasing has been tested on animals.)’

“The death of an animal used in a regulated procedure for scientific experimentation was not an adverse effect which needed to be taken into account when deciding whether to grant a licence for such experiments. Rather, the statutory scheme governing such licences was concerned with the pain and suffering which animals might experience before death.”

“An anti-vivisection campaign group won a partial victory yesterday in its High Court claim that the Government was failing in its legal duty to ensure animal suffering was kept to a minimum in UK laboratories.”

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